Key information

Absence

It is important (and your legal responsibility) to ensure that your child attends school regularly and at the agreed times. We would appreciate it if you would follow the procedures, below, if your child is late or absent from school.

Late Arrival

Please telephone school if your child is going to be late. On arrival, please sign your child in and ensure the Administrator knows your lunch arrangements.

Sickness Absence

If your child is unwell and will not be coming to school, please telephone school as soon as possible on the first day of absence to let us know. If the absence lasts longer than one day, please also send in a letter when your child returns to school. We should also be notified of hospital appointments, etc., in advance, as we are required to make a note of the reason for any absence in the class registers.

Absence

Application for authorised absence in exceptional circumstances must be made using an absence request form which can be obtained from the school office. Please note, absence in the first weeks of the new school year, in September, and also during May, when SATs take place is very unlikely to be authorised. All applications must be made in advance of absence.

THE EDUCATION (SCHOOLS AND FURTHER EDUCATION) REGULATIONS 1981

If an absence request is refused and the child is taken out of school anyway the county must be advised and a Penalty Notice may be issued.

Any unauthorised absence has to be recorded on the school's (and the child's) records.

For further details, please see the attendance policy.

Accidents

We always aim to keep your child as safe as possible in school, but accidents sometimes do happen. In the vast majority of cases, these will only be minor accidents such as grazes or bruises, requiring simple first aid. Many of the school staff have attended first aid courses and someone will treat your child promptly. If your child is involved in anything more serious or becomes ill in school, we will inform you as quickly as possible. We will always contact parents in the case of head injuries. We keep a register of emergency contact numbers for each child and it is very important that this is kept up to date.

PLEASE LET US KNOW WITHOUT DELAY IF ANY OF YOUR CONTACT NUMBERS CHANGE, so that we can keep our records up to date.

Class organisation

The children at Ilsington School, as in other Primary Schools, are taught in three Key Stages.

The Foundation Stage (which also covers Pre-school) covers children aged 3 - 5 years. In our school, these are our Reception children, aged 4 and 5 years.

Key Stage 1 covers Years 1 and 2. These are our 5 - 7 year olds.

Key Stage 2 covers Years 3 - 6. These are our 7 - 11 year olds.

The classes for the academic year 2018/19 are as follows:

Foundation Stage & Year 1 taught by Mrs Barker

Year 2, 3 and 4 taught by Mrs Billington

Year 5 and 6 taught by Mrs Young & Mrs Moores

The school is committed to differentiating work. This means that teachers match work according to the abilities in their class. For some of their school day, therefore, children will work in groups, the group structure depending on the learning task. At other times, the children will work in whole class or mixed ability groups.

Collective worship

The children take part in collective worship through daily school or class assemblies.
Arrangements can be made if parents request that their child is wholly or partly withdrawn from religious education and/or collective worship. Children who are withdrawn from assemblies will be supervised by a member of staff.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with any aspect of your child's schooling, the best way forward is to take the matter up with the appropriate member of the teaching staff and/or the Executive Head of School. We find that many concerns are a result of misunderstandings or misinformation and can quickly be cleared up by a chat with the child's class teacher.

If this does not seem appropriate or does not resolve the problem please make an appointment to speak to the Executive Head of School Mr Des Stokes

If a discussion with the Executive Head of School does not remove the worry, you may wish to discuss the matter further with the Executive Principal - Rachel Shaw. We sincerely hope that we will be able to resolve any problems to everyone's satisfaction within school.

The 1988 Education Act sets out more formal arrangements which enable complaints to be considered by the Governing body of the School, the Local Education Authority, and ultimately the Secretary of State. Details of the procedures can be found on our policies page.

Uniform

Ilsington School has a uniform for these reasons:

To give children an identity related to their school

To promote pride in the school

To present the best image of the school to other schools and the community

To help parents avoid conflict over dress and reduce cost

To minimise risks to health and safety

The uniform is:

Jade green sweatshirt with school logo preferably

White or navy polo shirt

Grey shorts, trousers/ pinafore dresses or skirt

Green check dresses in summer

Black sturdy Shoes

PE Kit

black shorts

white/ jade T-shirt

trainers

track suits can be useful during the winter

You can now order and pay for school uniform online from School Trends by following the link http://www.schooltrendsonline.com/schools/IlsingtonCEPrimarySchoolTQ139RE/or alternatively visit www.schooltrendsonline.com Simply go to the website address, then select ‘Find My School’ and follow the order instructions. You can either pay online or if you prefer, you can order online and send a cheque to the address below.

SchoolTrends

10 Carley Drive

Westfield

Sheffield S20 8NQ

There are no minimum order quantities and your uniform will be delivered directly to your chosen address. As well as our approved decorated school uniform, you are also able to order plain items such as trousers, skirts and shirts.

This should be in school every day. It is helpful if it can be kept in a separate, named bag.
Swimming kit is also needed during the Summer Term.

Please help the school staff by ensuring that all items of clothing are clearly named.

Jewellery should be limited to watches and stud earrings for those with pierced ears. For health and safety reasons, earrings must be removed or taped over during P.E. lessons.

Please note, children in Honeywell class do not need a separate PE kit as it takes a long time for little ones to change!

Early to School Club

We are pleased to offer an Early to School club every day run by Shani Adams. Children can attend from 8:00am to include breakfast, or from 8:20am for the activity session only. Current prices £3.50 for the full session. £2.00 from 8.20am

Extra Curricular Activities

We offer a variety of clubs which run either at lunchtime or after-school such as netball, football, singing, running, animation, ju-jitsu, cricket, handbells, art and dance.

During lunchtimes, children help to run activities for the benefit of other children. The Huff and Puff shed is a very popular choice – the shed houses lots of equipment which any child can borrow such as space hoppers, skipping ropes, bats and balls, and monitors take it in turns to hand out the equipment and put it away. We also have child Play Leaders who run activities such as parachute games a few times a week.

We are always keen to offer additional opportunities for learning outside the classroom. Here are some examples:

Each year, children in Years 5 and 6 take part in Body Language – a dance festival organised by South Dartmoor Community College which every primary school in the Learning Community is involved in.

Every Christmas, the Friends Association takes the whole school to the theatre to watch a pantomime/production

We put on musical productions every year. At Christmas, KS1 entertain with a Nativity and later in the year, KS2 perform a musical or a play.

We regularly send teams to take part in a variety of sporting events held at South Dartmoor Community College, from festivals and tournaments to special “gifted and talented” events

We have great links with our community and in the last few years have been involved in the rebuilding of the Haytor Visitor Centre, singing at community events and always provide work for the local Art Festival and Flower Show.

Medicines

If your child has had medicine prescribed by a doctor which has to be given during the school day, it may be possible for a member of staff to do this. You will have to fill in a form about the medication at the school office.

All medicines should be handed in to the school office by the parent and collected from there at the end of the school day. Children are not allowed to self-medicate in scohol . Staff will only administer prescribed medication which is clearly marked with the child's name and cannot administer this without a completed medical form signed by the parent.

If your child has a long-term medical condition, please discuss this with the class teacher and/or Executive Head of School

School day

School begins at 9 o'clock. Children are welcome to arrive from 8:45am and go straight into their class.

Morning break is from 10:30 - 10:50am. The children can bring in a drink and a small snack e.g. a piece of fruit, plain biscuit.

Lunch break is from 12:30 - 1:30pm. School meals are freshly cooked and delivered each day from Ashburton Primary School. We are always willing to discuss special dietary requirements and make any necessary arrangements for these. Children can stay for lunch on a daily or weekly basis - they do not have to have a school lunch every day. Meals can be chosen and paid for using ParentPay a week in advance on a Monday.

Your child can also bring a packed lunch to school. These are stored in each classroom.

All of the children are supervised at lunchtimes by our Meal-Time Assistants, who encourage them to eat the food they are given (from home or school) and to have good table manners. The MTAs also supervise the children when they go out to play.

There is an afternoon break of ten minutes for children in KS1, and school ends at 3:30pm. The staff escort the children to the gate and make sure that they are safely collected. The children know that they do not leave the playground until they can see the person who is collecting them. If you are a little late picking up from school, your child will wait safely in their classroom with the teacher until you arrive.